The Ramos Court neighborhood is small. The houses along the street are low to the ground and the streets are narrow. Ruts and cracks cover the pavement, aggravated by water damage. People walk in the middle of the road; there is only one short stretch of sidewalk.

In 2011, a levee in a nearby canal broke, ruining some neighborhood homes and worsening road conditions.

Now three years after the canal's break, crews will begin rebuilding and improving the streets and drainage systems in the East-Central neighborhood starting next week.

"We had to secure the funding, and it takes a year to get designed, and another six months for the bidding process," city Rep. Emma Acosta said. "The government works slow, but it works."

The $1.3 million in improvements will upgrade the storm water system, sewer lines, water lines and the ponding area. New street lighting and sidewalks will also be added. Ramos Court, Little Flower Road and Manning Way will be fully reconstructed as part of the project.

The project will be completed by about March 2015, city officials said.

The improvements are being paid for through certificates of obligation under the city's Street Infrastructure Capital Improvement Plan, as well as the El Paso Water Utilities and Federal Community Development Block Grants. The monthly stormwater fees paid by water company customers will fund the ponding area reconstruction.

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The city's Engineering and Construction Management Department spokesman Martin Bartlett said the work will begin by early next week. Residents will see "visible progress" within the next two weeks, he said.

For many of the residents, progress couldn't come soon enough.

Oscar Moreno lives on the corner of Little Flower Road and Ramos. He hefts a glossy, beige-colored ramp against his porch wall, as high as he is tall. It needs fixing, he said, after being ruined by water.

His poodle, Muñeca, stays close to Moreno. Her immaculate appearance mirrors his front yard, which is mostly concrete and devoid of clutter. Two sandbags flank his front gate, one of them split open from recent water damage, a small bit of chaos in a perfectly maintained yard.

"I just bought them about a month ago," Moreno said about the sandbags. "When it rains a lot I have the sandbags, but the bags are not good."

Moreno's house is raised on a small concrete platform about five inches high, enough to keep out most of the water, he said.

"The major problem was on the neighbors' (homes)," he said. "The water got into their houses. I didn't get any in my house because of the height of the concrete, but the dirt got through into the entrance."

When the street flooded, he needed to clean a mess from his front yard.

"The flood, it carried all the dirt and the rocks and everything up to the trees," Moreno said. "I had to used a shovel to pick up the dirt. It took a while. Me and my wife, doing it by ourselves."

Moreno uses a walker to support himself, and a wheelchair when leaving his home. The lack of sidewalks makes moving around the neighborhood difficult, he said.

"I don't go out a lot," he said. "I just go to the doctor's. But when it's flooded, full of dirt, and I need to get the mail — it's a few feet but a wheelchair full of mud. If you have to go and use the bus, forget it. No sidewalk."

Acosta said she worked to bring improvements to the neighborhood, pushing to add the project to the streets capital improvement program the City Council approved in 2012. The $210 million plan to resurface and reconstruct streets citywide is being funded by certificates of obligation, which don't require voter approval and are repaid with tax dollars.

"Residents of Ramos Court and the surrounding neighborhood were devastated by the damage caused by the floodwaters," she said. "I'm proud that we can now deliver a safer, better network of streets and drainage that will not only protect the neighborhood from future flooding but also beautifies the neighborhood with improved sidewalks and lighting."

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